The NPC quests have always been a highlight in FromSoftware games. That is, in part, due to how cryptic they can be, yet they’re satisfying and illuminating when you manage to actually follow one all the way to the end. In the original Souls trilogy, NPC quests had to be solved just by talking to them and either deciphering what they were saying to figure out what you needed to do, not do, or where to go in order to progress the quest. Elden Ring is much the same, but with a few small quality-of-life improvements that make completing them a bit more manageable now that you’re exploring the extremely vast Lands Between.
Contents
- Meeting Dung Eater
- Find the first Seedbed Curse
- Meet the real Dung Eater
- Battle at the outer moat
- Feed him five curses
- Complete the game
Your hub area in Elden Ring, the Roundtable Hold, is where a majority of the main NPCs of the game will show up. They may not stay there forever, and some never appear there at all, but a good number of them will begin their quests from this safe location. This is also true for the unappealing character who shows up in a red phantom form, stinking in a pile of trash and disgusting rotting armor, known as Dung Eater. Other NPCs will warn you to steer clear of him, but this welp does have an entire questline to follow that can even lead to a new ending. If you want to know how to complete the Dung Eater’s quest in Elden Ring, here’s a step-by-step guide.
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Meeting Dung Eater
Dung Eater doesn’t show up for quite a while, depending on your speed through Elden Ring. You will notice many doors are closed and cannot be opened in Roundtable Hold, but different events and triggers will gradually open them up. For Dung Eater, he will show up in the room beyond the Twin Maiden Husks merchant only after you’ve made it to the Altus Plateau and reached Leyndell, Royall Capital. Once you have, you will spot the new red figure sitting in a trashed room beside tons of corpses.
Even though he appears as a red phantom, you can’t fight him, though it is a pretty obvious bit of foreshadowing. Talking to him doesn’t reveal much, but the next step in getting more out of him involves finding your first Seedbed Curse.
Find the first Seedbed Curse
There are a total of six Seedbed Curse items in Elden Ring, one of which can be completely missed if you progress too far. Thankfully, only five are required to finish this entire quest. For now, though, we just need to get one to kick things off.
We got one of the Seedbed Curses in Leyndell, Royal Capital since it was most convenient to where we were, but you can look below for where the others are if you’d rather grab one of those. For this one, go to the Fortified Manor. This location is the real-world place the Roundtable Hold was based on and has the exact same layout, though with a few tweaks. If you exit the Fortified Manor, go east around the building and climb up some shacks on the side so you can reach the second floor. From here, simply go into the same room you would find Dung Eater in at Roundtable Hold, only now there will be a body with the Seedbed Curse item you can loot.
Meet the real Dung Eater
With your first Seedbed Curse, travel back to Roundtable Hold and talk to Dung Eater again. You’ll get some more dialogue, so exhaust it all until he gives you the Sewer Gaol Key. This will need to be taken back into Leyndell, Royal Capital to find the real, non-phantom version of Dung Eater. Knowing Leyndell, especially the sewer area, this won’t be easy to find.
To start off, go to the Avenue Balcony Site of Grace and head to the northwest, down the stairs, and jump over the railing to the left side to a small cluster of ruined buildings half-buried in snow or ash below the dead dragon’s wing. Search around here for an old well you can climb down. Carefully make your way through this tunnel area, making sure to make a pit stop at the Site of Grace, and then take your next left to fall down an open grate on the floor.
At the bottom, go right and avoid the poison flower enemies until you reach a ladder. Don’t stop to take in the sights, because there’s an ambush waiting if you linger before taking the ladder. Once at the top, examine the cells on the right side of the wall until you find the one with Dung Eater inside and the prompt to open it. This will use the key and let you inside to talk with the real man in all his disgusting glory.
Go through his dialogue until you get the choice to say either, “Leave your gaol!” or nothing. Choose the former option to progress his quest. Finally, you can leave these sewers and go back to the Roundtable Hold. In Dung Eater’s former room, his red phantom version will no longer be there, but he did leave you a message you should read. It is clearly a challenge and one you should happily accept.
Battle at the outer moat
As per Dung Eater’s note, you need to find him next at what he simply called “the outer moat.” This isn’t a real, named location in Elden Ring, which can make it rather confusing since there are plenty of castles and moats in the game. The one he’s referring to, though, is the one around Lyndell, Royal Capital. Specifically, you want to go to the Capital Rampart Site of Grace and head northwest around the wall into the first body of water on the map. Once you wade into these waters, Dung Eater will invade you and the battle begins.
Waste no time taking down this mess of a man and you will claim his sword called the Sword of Milos, but the story doesn’t end here. If you go back to Roundtable Hold yet again, Dung Eater has returned to his old room once more and asks you to “defile” him by giving him the remaining Seedbed Curse items.
Feed him five curses
Now we need to gather up the remaining Seedbed Curses to fully “defile” Dung Eater. Here are where you can find the other Seedbed Curses, excluding the first one we got in the above section.
Back in Leyndell, Royal Capital, because you are likely quite familiar with that location by now, start at the East Rampart Site of Grace and enter the city. Go forward until you have the option to take an elevator on your right side and ride it down. Fight through the next room and climb the ladder inside, going all the way to the top floor. In this big round room, there will be a single body in the center with a glowing item. Loot it for a Seedbed Curse.
Taking a major detour now, make sure you have a Stonesword Key ready if you haven’t fully explored the Volcano Manor area already. Start at the Temple of Eiglay, go up the elevator, and look off the cliff for a ledge you can fall down to go partway back down. Kill or avoid the enemies here until you make it inside the manor and climb the stairs. Do a 180 at the top and go into the room behind you using the Stonesword Key. Fall down the pit beyond the gate and carefully drop from cage to cage all the way to the bottom. It is a tricky bit of platforming, so be careful, but the next curse is waiting for you at the very bottom.
Our last two Seedbed Curses are in probably the most difficult areas in the game: The Haligtree.
First, start at the Prayer Room Site of Grace and head northeast until you reach a set of stairs you can take up or down. Choose to go down and hop onto the bit of architecture just before an unaware enemy on a balcony. From here, make another jump toward a scarab, but don’t bother risking chasing it right now. Walk up this next slope to a ledge where a corpse with the item is waiting to be collected.
Reset back to the Prayer Room Site of Grace, repeating your steps to the stairs, but now go all the way down to the end where two knights guard a room. Ignore that room, and instead jump off the right side onto a roof below. Turn around, and you’ll see a path leading under the area you just came from. Follow it down the stairs and into a room leading to yet another corpse at the edge of a balcony. Pick up the final curse here to bring back to Dung Eater.
Complete the game
Once you find at least five total Seedbed Curses and return them to Dung Eater, he will give you one final prize: The Mending Rune of the Fell Curse. This is a key item that will be used, unless you also meet the requirements for other endings, once you beat the final boss of Elden Ring. If you do, you will get the Blessing of Despair ending, which is considered one of the worst endings for the state of the world, but it’s still fun to see for anyone who wants to get every ending available.
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FAQs
How to complete Dung Eater's quest in Elden Ring | Digital Trends? ›
In order to progress his quest, you'll need Seedbed Curse otherwise, he will tell you to leave him alone. When you deliver the first Seedbed Curse to Dung Eater, he'll give you a Sewer-Gaol Key that can be used to unlock the sewer beneath Leyndell, Royal Capital.
How do I continue the dung eaters quest? ›In order to progress his quest, you'll need Seedbed Curse otherwise, he will tell you to leave him alone. When you deliver the first Seedbed Curse to Dung Eater, he'll give you a Sewer-Gaol Key that can be used to unlock the sewer beneath Leyndell, Royal Capital.
How do you get the Dung Eater ending in Elden Ring? ›Elden Ring Dung Eater ending
As if the folks of the Lands Between didn't already have it bad enough. The idea of this ending is simple, since all you need to do is give Dung Eater five Seedbeed Curse items to gain the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse.
Completing the Dung Eater questline will reward you with the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse. After you have given the Dung Eater all five Seedbed Curses, you will receive the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, one of the items used to unlock an ending in Elden Ring.
Is it worth doing the Dung Eater questline? ›While it may sound repulsive enough to put one off ever going near it, the Dung Eater's questline is well worth the effort required by virtue of the rewards it offers players. It not only leads to a set of armor and a new weapon, but it also gives players an item needed to unlock one of the game's endings.
What happens if Dung Eater kills you? ›If you approach him with any Seedbed Curse in your inventory, he will give you the Sewer-Gaol Key and ask you to find his real body beneath Leyndell. If killed in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds, he will drop the following: Omen Helm. Omen Armor.
Can you get Dung Eater armor after beating the game? ›Killing the Dung Eater right after giving him Seluvis's Potion allows you to get both the Omen Set and the Dung Eater Puppet. However, should you leave the area or quit and reload, his body would disappear, preventing you from getting his armor set.
Why is Dung Eater so evil in Elden Ring? ›Well, apparently, he's not just evil for evil's sake. Like all beings who are vying for the Elden Throne or the Elden Ring's power, Dung Eater's goal is to curse all beings in the Lands Between. He does this through his aforementioned Seedbed Curses, which grows on the corpses of his victims.
Why is he called the Dung Eater? ›It is from this punishment that the Dung-Eater earned his title, since being covered - literally - in dung is definitely likely to leave a lasting impression on any and all who see it.
What is the hardest ending in Elden Ring? ›The most difficult ending to achieve in Elden Ring is the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending. To get this ending you need to undertake a pretty obtuse and esoteric quest, meaning you might not ever come across it over the course of your standard play.
What happens if you refuse Melina? ›
Refusing Melina's offer in Elden Ring will block your progression in the game. Accepting her offer is the only way to level up in the game, and she's the one who will give you the key item Spectral Steed Whistle, which you can use to summon Elden Ring's horse Torrent.
Is Ranni good or bad? ›Julianna Swickard of CBR also debated whether Ranni was good or evil, arriving at the conclusion that while she was morally grey as a character, her ending was the "best possible outcome" of all the game's endings.
What does killing Radahn give you? ›Killing Radahn will get you the Remembrance of the Starscourge, and Radahn's Great Rune. It will also trigger a cutscene that shows a meteor landing somewhere on the map, which will trigger a continuation of Ranni's questline...
Should I let Dung Eater free? ›Take your Curses back to the Dung Eater's body and feed them to him. After the fifth one, you'll get the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse. That's all you need from the Dung Eater, so feel free to end him and collect his armor if you want.
Is Dung Eater armor worth it? ›Dung Eater's armor offers superb protection but is on the rather heavy side. It's one of the best sets in the game but will only be useful to those with high and tanky stats. You can unlock it once his quest ends, either by feeding him 5 Seabed Curses, turning him into a puppet, or simply killing him in his cell.
Does dung eaters quest affect the ending? ›The Loathsome Dung Eater guides the player to the worst ending in Elden Ring, and there is absolutely no reason for the player to follow him to it. The game goes out of its way to let the player know that following Dung Eater is a bad idea, and they would be wise to listen.
Is Dung Eater the most evil? ›The Loathsome Dung Eater is one of Elden Ring's most evil boss characters. His actions are horrific in-game and in lore, and players should fear him.
Can you get the Omen Set if you turn Dung Eater into a puppet? ›You are now finished with both the Dung Eater part of getting his puppet, the Dung Eater questline (as it can no longer be completed). You can also kill the Dung Eater right after administering the potion (don't leave or reset or his body will vanish) to obtain the Omen Set.
What is the heaviest armor in Elden Ring? ›The absolute heaviest armor in the game is the Bull Goat armor. At a whopping 63 weight in total, the Bull Goat armor also sports the best poise and physical defense in the entire game as well.
Can you get dung eaters sword? ›The Sword of Milos weapon can be found at the following location: Dropped by killing Dung Eater in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds if you choose to kill him here.
Is Dung Eater a good guy? ›
The Dung Eater is a minor antagonist from 2022 action-RPG video game Elden Ring. He is a depraved Tarnished within the Roundtable Hold that is obsessed with defiling the corpses of many. He was voiced by Jim Johnson.
What is the scariest Enemy in Elden Ring? ›One of the scariest enemies in all of the Lands Between is the massive Runebear. While a Runebear appears to be nothing more scaled-up normal brown bear, its aggression and power are nearly unmatched.
Is the Dung Eater a Kappa? ›The leading theory is that Dung Eater is actually a 'kappa', a creature from Japanese folklore that steals its victims souls through their anus, leaving them as a shell of who they once were. The theory does make more sense than "guy who eats poop", and also explains why his victims look the way they do.
How many endings does Elden Ring have? ›There is a total of 6 endings. The player will become the Elden Lord except in the "Lord of Frenzied Flame" ending and the "Age of Stars" ending. Any of the four Elden Lord endings grants the Trophy/Achievement, meaning you only need to clear the game 3 times to get all of them, and not 6.
What exactly is a Tarnished? ›Tarnish is a thin layer of corrosion that forms over copper, brass, aluminum, magnesium, neodymium and other similar metals as their outermost layer undergoes a chemical reaction. Tarnish does not always result from the sole effects of oxygen in the air.
Which Elden Ring ending is easiest? ›The Age of Fracture is the easiest and simplest ending to obtain, and might as well be considered the default or standard ending to Elden Ring.
What ending does Melina want? ›The Age of Fracture ending is the one that Melina wanted throughout the game. She's sacrificed herself as kindling to burn down the Erdtree, and fulfilled her goal of seating the protagonist on the Elden Throne.
What is the age of Duskborn? ›Age of Duskborn, another deviation from the vanilla ending, is achieved by completing Fia's questline and mending the Elden Ring with the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince. This creates an order of Death Restore, which restores an element of nature that the Golden Order had removed.
Will Melina hate me if I save her? ›You will need to take her place as the sacrifice to light the Erdtree, and even though you'll be saving her life in the process, Melina will hate you forever.
Could I have saved Melina? ›How to Save Melina in Elden Ring? At the end of the day, to save Melina, you have to take her place as the sacrificial offering to the Erdtree by making her leave you before the conclusion of her arc.
Can you spare Melina? ›
Melina can be saved in Elden Ring, but only if the player makes an enemy of her. Melina cannot be resurrected after she dies. The player winds up at odds with Melina if they are embraced by the Three Fingers.
What did Ranni do to her body? ›Ranni plotted for the assassins to kill another individual while she simultaneously killed herself, slaying her own body while the other person died in spirit, thus freeing herself from being an Empyrean.
Does Rani love the Tarnished? ›In the Age of the Stars ending, Ranni refers to the Tarnished as her "lord" and her "dear consort", showing that she has not just acknowledged them as being Elden Lord, but also fully acknowledged their own spouse by her side.
Is there a downside to serving Ranni? ›Should You Serve Ranni the Witch? Ranni will ask you to serve her once you reach her. There are no negative consequences to saying yes - only boons, such as more story questlines and unique rewards. You must complete Ranni's questline to continue Fia's Questline, which unlocks yet another unique ending as well.
Why is Radahn horse so small? ›It turns out that Radahn learned Gravity Magic in Elden Ring for the sole purpose of never being separated from his horse, thus alleviating his weight off the shoulders of the horse.
Why did Malenia fight Radahn? ›It is not currently clear why exactly Malenia decided to march with her armies on Radahn but two prominent theories prevail. Radahn could have been attempting to take more pieces of the Elden Rune than he was originally bestowed.
How do you get Dung Eater armor after the quest? ›The Omen set can be found after killing the Dung Eater in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds at the Leyndell Royal Capital. Killing the Dung Eater right after giving him Seluvis's Potion allows you to get both the Omen Set and the Dung Eater Puppet.
How do you get the blessing of despair ending? ›How to obtain ending: After the final boss, touch Fractured Marika and choose to "Use Mending Rune of the Fell Curse" to get the Blessing of Despair Ending.
Is Dung Eater a questline or puppet? ›To get the Dung Eater Puppet in Elden Ring, Tarnished must take Seluvis's Potion and give it to Dung Eater after progressing his questline. The Dung Eater Puppet is a Spirit Summon in Elden Ring that is formidable enough to stand on its own and even potentially solo lesser bosses in the Lands Between.
Can I complete dung eater quest without blackguard? ›You have to give him 5 of the curses to complete his quest and get his armor set which is the heaviest armor in the game. Blackguard doesn't matter. His only real purpose in the game is to die and give you the fifth curse you need to complete Dung Eaters quest which is the important one.
Is there another way to get the Dung Eater summon? ›
If the Dung Eater doesn't appear here, players can buy some of his sorceries as well as give him an Amber Starlight and the option should appear to ask for another Puppet. The Dung Eater will be in this shop if it didn't appear before.